Televisions (TVs) manufactured for use in health care facilities, such as within hospital rooms, are specifically designed for use within those environments. In the past, such televisions have been designed to meet certain requirements regarding safety and control. However, such hospital TV control has always been subject to an informal control standard directed to the patient operation of the TVs from a hospital bed rail control or a pillow speaker. The term "pillow speaker" is generally used to refer to a device associated with a hospital bed which provides an audio speaker and volume control for a television, along with capabilities for communicating with the nurse, controlling lighting, and other such features. The pillow speaker is generally a detached unit connected by a cord to the bed or to an interface plug in the wall.
While available hospital TVs and their associated controls provide a basic viewing experience, they suffer from several significant drawbacks.
Historically, the control of hospital TVs has been severely limited and has generally consisted of a single button control which turns the television ON and OFF and changes the channel. Separate volume control buttons are used for raising or lowering the volume of the television. For example, such TVs are turned ON by pressing the TV button. Then, each subsequent depression of the TV button changes the channel UP to the next available viewing channel. When all the available channels are displayed in sequence, the television then turns OFF. Depressing the TV button again turns the television back ON and prepares it again for moving UP through the channels. The patient or other person controlling the TV can only progress upwardly through the channels. If a desired channel is passed, the patient has to progress all the way through the channel selections, has to turn the TV OFF and then ON again, and finally has to move up slowly through the channels, being careful to again not pass the desired channel. Furthermore, a patient cannot turn the TV OFF at a selected channel and then turn it back ON at that channel. The TV always comes back ON at the same channel and the patient has to again search for the channel they were previously viewing.
Such scenarios are not only frustrating and a waste of the patent's time, but also may unduly and undesirably aggravate the patient, whose health may not be at its best. While such control may have been at least sufficient when only a few channels were available for viewing, the latest TV technology requires additional control for accessing a large number of additional channels and operating an expanded set of TV features and functions. For example, it is desirable to turn the television ON and OFF and have it remain at the channel which was last selected. Furthermore, it is desirable to move UP or DOWN through the available channels at random. Still further, it is desirable to access a number of other TV features, such as display menus or channel viewing guides. Newly available hospital TVs, often referred to as code-driven TVs, are capable of being functionally controlled as desired and discussed above. However, current hospital TV control technology is usually only able to provide the limited control that has traditionally been available with a hospital TV and often cannot take full advantage of the code-driven TV technology.
Another significant drawback of available hospital TV control technology is that each bed and pillow speaker associated with the bed must be configured to control a specific brand/model of hospital TV. There are currently at least three major manufacturers of hospital TVS. To control a specific TV brand/model from a hospital bed and pillow speaker, the bed and pillow speaker have to be specially manufactured and configured for that TV model.
As such, a hospital or other health care facility has to know which beds are going to go with which TV models, and the manufacturer of the beds has to tailor and configure the bed operation for the specific TV model. Oftentimes, such configuration is required in the field, which further increases the manufacturing costs associated with each bed. After the beds and TVs are installed, a bed cannot be moved to a room having a different TV model than the one for which it is manufactured and configured. Otherwise, the TV cannot be controlled from the bed. As may be appreciated, this presents significant logistical problems for the hospital in setting up a hospital room. Furthermore, it presents delays in implementing a bed into a room, because if the bed and TV do not communicate, then the hospital has to obtain a different bed, or a different TV model or has to have the bed reconfigured for the specific TV model available.
The present hospital TV control scenario is also unsuitable for hospital bed manufacturing. Manufacturers have to keep different beds in inventory, or have to specifically tailor or retrofit each bed to the customer's TV demands. Such retrofitting is often done by the bed manufacturer in the field. This is not only costly in the way of increased inventory costs and post production modifications, but it also creates another issue for manufacturers' Customer Service Departments to handle.
Furthermore, not only do the above problems and drawbacks arise when a new hospital room is being set up, but they will again occur if there is a malfunction in the bed, in the TV, or both. Replacement beds or TVs cannot simply be taken from other rooms unless the hospital only has one type of bed and one model of television.
Any solution to the above drawbacks in current TV control technology must not only take into account the newer code-driven hospital TVs, but must also be compatible with older TV s that will probably remain in a particular hospital until they malfunction or the hospital makes a determination to upgrade to newer TVs. Given the interest in rising health care costs, the former situation may occur before the latter.
Radio capabilities are also usually available with some hospital TVs. In the past, the bed rails and pillow speakers have had separate, generally single button, RADIO controls for turning the radio ON and OFF and changing the radio channels. Furthermore, radio control was limited like the TV control. Therefore, any suitable solutions to the drawbacks of the current TV control technology should also be capable of utilizing available radio features of a television, whether an older TV model or a newer, code-driven model.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to address the drawbacks in available hospital TV control scenarios, and to provide an improved TV control system for medical and health care facilities, such as hospitals.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a TV control system which adapts to TV models from a variety of different manufacturers.
To that end, it is still a further objective of the present invention to have a bed- dedicated TV control unit and bed which may be moved between areas in the hospital without being dependent upon the model of TV with which it is interfaced.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide expandability of TV control functions in a hospital for easily accessing additional channels and addressing additional features available with current TV technology.
It is still a further objective to provide expanded control capabilities for newer hospital TVs while at the same time maintaining compatibility with older TVs which are currently in place in various hospitals.
It is another objective to provide suitable radio control within the TV control system.
These and other objectives will become more readily apparent from the Summary of the Invention, Brief Description of the Drawings, and Detailed Description of the Invention, below.